Rude Customers

it's bad enough you're on a minimum wage and have to stand for hours on end without sitting down..

having to serve someone that's just plain rude adds insult to injury...

I work in a deli and it's a pretty laborious job, I'd started at 10am and had been standing and serving people for the last three hours, my lunch break was ten minutes away... but there were these two guys just loitering around the seafood section without even taking a ticket.. (it's as if they expected me to serve them before everyone else..)

anyway, they looked frustrated so I went over and asked what they'd like

they asked for 1.5 kilograms of frozen prawns

the seafood scoop had disappeared so i put on a pair of gloves and leaned into the cabinet, , hauling 500 grams of prawns in one bag and 1kg in the other.. i'm tall so i kept hitting my head and it was generally awkward manoeuvring myself within the cabinet..

the guys were laughing at me the whole time

so yeah i weighed the prawns out and went to wrap them.. there were no large sheets of butcher paper left (the order hadn't come through yet for more).. all that I had were the small size.. which is literally the size of an A4 piece of office paper...

so here I had.. 1.5 kgs of frozen prawns in two bags... and A4 pieces of paper...

it took me about three times to wrap the 500 grams, eventually it worked okay so that was fine

but it took me ages to wrap the 1kg... i'd wrapped about 10 kgs worth of prawns that day in 1kg bags because they were on special, in exactly the same manner and no one had a problem with it... so I just assumed how I'd wrapped it was okay this time..

yeah, there was a crack in the package so I wrapped it in cling wrap just to make sure.. so I presented the guys with the 500gram package.. that was ok.. but the 1kg package, they just stared vacantly and then asked me to re wrap it and explained for about twenty seconds why the package wasn't wrapped properly

I tried to explain we only have certain sized paper, and that the cling wrap does a good job into holding it together, but he didnt care, he just threatened to call the manager... there were heaps of customers waiting to be served... it was time for my break but I couldn't take it

so I separated the 1kg package into 500 gram packs, and got the girl in charge to wrap them, the whole time the guys were complaining about how they were going to be late and how the pack was probably gonna split and sink their car out ...

I gave them the packages and said 'have a nice day', they just rolled their eyes and left

I wanted to cry but didn't

I just kept serving until the customers were cut down.. and then, half an hour later, I went on my break..

Sorry to hear that Eoz. Nothing worse when things are donw and you have trouble and people prefer to be rude then understand whats up.

The only time i get rude back to people serving me is when the people serving decide to have a conversation about a party they went to or are going to. Then i get put myself in the conversation and put them down (Always all woolworths).

Eoz, I am sorry you had to put up with idiots like that. But glad that you eventually got out of there.

I had a customer issue in a deli once. She didn't like the way I wrapped the bacon. I did it the way I was shown how to do it, so I thought there would be no problems. I was wrong... boy was I wrong!!! She didn't want her bacon folded. It had to be flat, and had to stay flat and not bend at all! It kind of didn't go too well. But she got what she wanted in the end. (after an argument with her, the deli manager, the store manager and myself.)

Yeah, while rolled under the counter for a few minutes than washed in a bucket of drty water.

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LOL!

I actually remember when I was working in the same store as the previous story, but on checkout, a woman came to my checkout with a MASSIVE trolley load of shopping. I was already serving someone and had a customer behond her.

The woman with the massive load, barged past the waiting customer, pushed the customer I was serving out the way, literally, with her trolley and continued towards the exit. (Shoplifting)

The manager quickly came down and walked towards her, and she dumped the trolley and left. Nothing could be done unless she walked out the supermarket with the shopping. I was stunned though. She was so rude pushing through like that to get out with the trolley. She even abused myself on her way through. She eventually did the same thing again but got caught by the police outside the supermarket. She rammed them with the trolley as well... hah!

One of my best friends lost three fingers on his right hand in a construction accident when he was younger. As time went on, he learned to be a butcher and got a job in the butcher section of the local supermarket. He told me how he dealt with obnoxious customers...especially wives of rich patrons who always found something to complain about when the butchers struggled to make their order perfect.

He would take the verbal abuse, responding as politely as he could. When the order was completed, he would wrap it in butcher paper, seal it with freezer tape and apply the appropriate label. Then, he would push it across the counter to the woman, making sure his missing-fingers hand was plainly visible on top of the package. He said, they shut up immediately and left as quickly as they could!

Eoz, I am sorry you had to put up with idiots like that. But glad that you eventually got out of there.

I had a customer issue in a deli once. She didn't like the way I wrapped the bacon. I did it the way I was shown how to do it, so I thought there would be no problems. I was wrong... boy was I wrong!!! She didn't want her bacon folded. It had to be flat, and had to stay flat and not bend at all! It kind of didn't go too well. But she got what she wanted in the end. (after an argument with her, the deli manager, the store manager and myself.)

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Thanks

and yeah, wrapping is harder than it looks.. but seriously, what's the big deal if the paper is creased up, it's butchers paper for cheeses'-sake, it's not meant to be presentable or durable, lol.

and yeah, wrapping is harder than it looks.. but seriously, what's the big deal if the paper is creased up, it's butchers paper for cheeses'-sake, it's not meant to be presentable or durable, lol.

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Some people just seriously go to MAJOR extremes. Kind of sad really. I mean if it were packing the junk they bought into bags, I'd understand... but like you said, it's butchers paper. sigh! They should put their efforts into a more important matter than their wrapped deli goods. Idiots!

The best strategy I have found for dealing with obnoxious boors is to nice them to death. They expect hostility back, and are ready to be even nastier in return, But if you don't react the way they want you to. they are off balance.

Besides, then everyone else on their side of the counter turns an angry glare on them, incinerating them in seconds.

Heh, I remember I was waiting for my friend to get off work in a deli, and this guy came in and asked for 'crisps and butter on a roll' (that's potato chips if you're an Americano). So my friend made it up and gave it to him, and then the guy called her a "stupid bitch" and demanded she make it again because she had "crushed all the crisps". I was pretty pissed, but my friend didn't want me to make a big deal out of it, fearing she'd get in trouble.

The guy was our age, so I figured he was on his lunchbreak. Sure enough, I followed him back to a Carphone Warhouse, and waited 'til he manned the cash register. Then I went up and pretended I was returning my phone (which is like, 10 years old and totally beat up)
He says "Man, you can't return that phone here. We don't even stock this model."
So then I call him a liar and demand to see his manager. After a while of arguing he's like "Fine! **** it! I'll go get him, and he'll tell you the exact same thing! You can't return it!"

And so his manager comes up and he does the usual "is there a problem?" thing, and I take him aside and tell him exactly what happened in the deli. And it turns out that the manager is actually my friend's uncle (or aunt's boyfriend, or something -- he knew her, anyway)
And the guy was fired on the spot.

It was one of the best instances of perfectly executed poetic justice I've ever witnessed...

Apparently the guy had a serious attitude problem, and a long line of similar incidents in the past. Rumour has it that he's got Asperger's Syndrome. Which, maybe it isn't fair to fire him for being autistic, but you can't have someone in customer services who is unable to emotionally connect or empathise with people. I was surprised he had the job in the first place...

It's funny, I'm not excessively confident... I'm pretty average. I can handle myself fine in most situations, but I wouldn't be comfortable with, say, walking up and hitting on some stranger. Most confrontations leave me drained. I empathise with people, even the people I'm arguing with, which means psychologically I end up fighting myself. But once someone establishes themselves as an asshole I lose the ability to empathise and nothing they say can bother me.

It's like the old adage, "you can only truly be hurt by those you care about"

anyone of us who've ever worked with the public has horror stories galore to tell... the key to survival is to remember that for every 10 creeps 'n cretins who bedevil ya, you'll also come across at least 1 sweet, nice, grateful being who'll sorta make up for the rest, even if it doesn't heal all of your 'owies'...

and 'if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen,' as harry s useta say...

The best strategy I have found for dealing with obnoxious boors is to nice them to death. They expect hostility back, and are ready to be even nastier in return, But if you don't react the way they want you to. they are off balance.

Besides, then everyone else on their side of the counter turns an angry glare on them, incinerating them in seconds.

I work in a library at the moment. The worst kind are, surprisingly, older women. Not the nice, chatty type. I'm referring to the cranky, sour grapes.

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My mum works in a library and she says the only rude customers she gets are the same sort of people you are talking about; the cranky, sour grapes type of older women. Many of the locals are great and mum thinks the rude ones are most likely tourists (not meaning to generalize, apologies).

anyone of us who've ever worked with the public has horror stories galore to tell... the key to survival is to remember that for every 10 creeps 'n cretins who bedevil ya, you'll also come across at least 1 sweet, nice, grateful being who'll sorta make up for the rest, even if it doesn't heal all of your 'owies'...

and 'if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen,' as harry s useta say...

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That is indeed true. If anyone has worked in fast food, although it's common knowledge, quite a few people that come around treat you as if your dirt, and if something is wrong, even the slightest thing, it's apparently your fault... But that one every few people that are nice are quite the warmer you need to continue with your day.

Weirdly enough, it's always the people from other countries that are normally the nicest.